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The Jerusalem Prayer List – Thursday, September 3, 2009

September 3, 2009

I have good news to share with you. The Judge of the District Court in Israel has given his verdict. Netivyah, he ruled, can build and add a floor to it’s building. This is a verdict of great importance for Israel and for all Jews who are disciples of Yeshua in the world. This is the second time in a six months that the Israeli courts have recognized Jewish Disciples of Yeshua as a movement and not as a sect and have granted Jewish Disciples of Yeshua their dew civil rights as equal citizens of a democratic country. In fact Israel is the only democracy in the whole Middle East. Joran is a monarchy, Syria is a dictatorship, Saudi Arabia is a monarchy, Egypt is a quasi demo-dictatorship too. The court system in Israel is the watch-dog of civil rights and fairness and I have always believed in the fairness and equality of the Israeli court system.

I wish I could

translate the twelve pages of the verdict so that you can rejoice with us even more. The bottom line is that we have received a green light from the Israeli legal system to build an extra floor and to open up the auditorium on the first floor. The Orthodox Jewish opposition has expressed great fear that we will expand and become a noisiness in the neighborhood, but the truth is that we have no plans to be a noisiness or to desturb the peace of our neighborhood. We do plan to be helpful and loving and understanding neighbors to both religious and secular.

Now the time has come to start raising the funds that we need to substantiate the building plans. Our plan is to first open up the bottom floor and make the whole floor into a meeting room. The auditorium will be designed as much as possible as a First Century Land of Israel Synagogue. The second floor will have a big well equipped kitchen and nursery for the many babies that are being born in our congregation and a fellowship room that can serve as a classroom. The third floor will have an apartment and a library that will also serve as a classroom. In the basement we plan to have a regulation bomb shelter and some storage room.

The cost of this project will be a bit more than one million US dollars. It sounds like a whole lot of money, but when I see the amount of money that is being spent in Israel by foreign non-Jewish organizations I have no doubt that the Lord will inspire many churches and individuals to help us build the first real synagogue home for a local Jewish Community. We have proven faithful for so many years and we have pioneered so much of what today is a standard for the whole body of Jewish Disciples of Yeshua world wide.

Please pray for us and pray for the Lord to impress upon you what prayer and what part you should have in the building of this home for humanitarian and spiritual and historical and educational services for the local Jewish Disciples of Yeshua.

This victory of democracy in Israel is so very important for both Jews and Christians and Jewish Disciples of Yeshua world wide. The court has given all Jewish Disciples of Yeshua a de-facto and de-jurist recognition at least with equal rights of citizens and legitimate freedom and equal rights. We have so much to praise the Lord for and I hope you join us in this praise.

God is faithful in all His promises and He keeps His Word in the most visible and tangible way.

Please pray for the hundreds of people who have to fend for themselves for three weeks while our Soup-Kitchen staff take their yearly vacation and the Soup-Kitchen is closed. Daily we have phone calls from the people who receive food from the Soup-Kitchen and they share their need and situation with tears. We have given several thousands of dollars of social help without any strings attached to needy brothers and sisters from all around the country. From the north to the south of Israel there are so many brothers who have some very basic needs for survival. Netivyah has never closed it’s fist tight and has always helped brothers who have a legitimate need even though they are from other congregations. But we have also always done it through the local leadership of the respectful congregation and not sought to take other congregations sheep. Israel is a small country and we all know each other and in fact help each other when we can.

The University School year is about to start in Israel and we have several requests from Jewish and Arab students for scholarship fund. We have been giving 200 dollars per month scholarships to several students in the Universities in Israel. It is our conviction that we ought to help not only the poor and needy but help those that in the future will be able to help others. For this reason we have the student scholarship fund. We are limited to help only ten students per year but ten students per year is a upgrade for the future of the whole community of Yeshua Disciples in Israel. I would like for you to help with your prayers for this wonderful and so very effective and important project.

We continue to pray for the sick and those who need a special touch of God’s healing hand. We have Marcia my wife who is struggling with her sugar diabetic and Rheumatoid Arthritis and now with the broken wrist on her left hand. Miriam our dear sister who has had cancer a few years ago is also not feeling good. David, Liora, Ahuva, Lea, Ilana, Sarit, Zvi and Sara, are all older people who have some serious health issues and need healing for their illnesses. We have very dear Arab sisters in Lod who need God’s healing touch, Rueida and Juju. They both have mobility issues that causes them much pain. In Brazil we have a wonderful young man by the name of Paulo who has had some very serious health problems. In Oklahoma City we keep Ruby and her mother in our prayers. In Japan we pray for Kemi our dear older sister who has been praying for the salvation of the Jewish people for more than a half century.

Please pray for our sick list and ask God for a special mandate of healing for these and all other sick people whom you know personally. It is a real mitzvah a good deed to pray for the sick and ask for grace and healing for your friends and for your brothers and sisters in the faith.

Kol HaYeshua radio broadcasts that works together with Trans World Radio who broadcasts our programs and with World Radio and Sansa and others who enable us to transmit Hebrew radio programs is very thankful for your prayers and your support. Kol HaYeshua is a kind of a light house in the darkness of the Middle East. Right now I am doing a audio series on King David. I am giving a different perspective on this greatest of Jewish Kings in Biblical History. I am looking at King David as a man, a natural man, and I am trying to understand why God loved this man so much and how the mechanism of God’s Love works with all of us sinners. Others are doing programs that are especially interesting for specific groups of people and all together we are a wonderful team that daily shares Good News with all of Israel and in fact all of the Middle East. Please keep Kol HaYeshua in your prayers.

This last week we have sent a special Calendar for 16 months from Rosh HaShanah this September 2009 until December of 2010. This Calendar was sent to all those who have made financial contributions to Netivyah this last year. If you have made a financial contribution to Netivyah in this last year and in two weeks or three weeks you did not receive a Calendar from us please drop us a line and let us know and we will do our best to send you a Calendar as long as they last. This Calendar has Elhanan Ben-Avraham’s paintings on it and they are beautiful and much more.

Please keep me in your prayers and keep the whole leadership of Netivyah and the Roeh Israel Congregation in your prayers. The Jewish Holiday time is always a challenge and this year is not an exception. We are very busy and very stressed with the volume of work that we have to do and also with the spiritual challenges not to speak of the financial challenges that face our ministry and our fellowship.

God bless you all and give you all that you need and even all that you wish for doing good!